When you want to bake dessert, you probably think that you need to have certain basic baking equipment to make it a success. Just like cooking, there are a few pieces of equipment and tools that are definitely required. If cooking requires a stove, pan, and cooking utensil, baking usually requires an oven, measuring cups, a mixing bowl, a stirring utensil, and a baking pan of some sort.
You might be told a weighing scale is the most precise way to measure ingredients but these can be measured with measuring cups and spoons. While yes, you do need more equipment than if you were cooking, the good news is that the basic baking equipment you do need does not include a stand mixer or even a handheld or electric mixer. If you've got a whisk, that's enough to get many jobs done. Even if you do not have a whisk, you can still make many desserts without it!
Here's what you can do if the recipe says you need a mixer but you only have the most basic equipment on hand:
1 Use a bowl and spoon to cream butter and sugar together.
You can ditch the mixer and just use a spoon to cream butter and sugar successfully. The key to this is the temperature of the butter. Butter should literally be softened enough that you can create a paste from the mixture of butter and sugar. This means following the recipe directions and thawing the butter and making sure it's softened before starting.
You'll see how easy it is to effectively cream butter and sugar together when the butter is at the proper temperature and texture.
2 Use a handheld whisk and bowl to whip eggs and cream.
The best thing you can do when you need to whip ingredients to stiff peaks is to be conscious of temperature. For eggs, eggs whip better and higher if it's warm or at room temperature. For cream, you need not only the cream itself to be chilled but also the bowl and the whisk for maximum height.
You might think that you cannot possibly whisk egg whites to stiff peaks. You can and you can do it easily, too. You need to add an ingredient to the mix to make it stable. This can be sugar, calamansi or lemon juice, vinegar, or cream of tartar if you have it. Sugar will dissolve and bind with the egg white to stabilize the foam being created as you whip. The acidic ingredients will help the egg whites become more airy, better, faster than without it.
3 Use a spatula to gently fold ingredients together.
Size matters in the case of the spatula! A big spatula is a great tool to have when baking because not only will you be able to better scrape ingredients from your bowl into your baking pan but you will also be able to fold ingredients together in a more gentle movement. This is important when you're working with whipped ingredients such as folding powdered sugar into whipped cream to make sweetened whipped cream toppings and whipped egg whites into a thick cake batter base.
In fact, a mixer is not the equipment to use when doing either of these steps. Doing it by hand is by far the gentler way of folding ingredients together.
4 Use a big bowl, plastic wrap, and choose a no-knead recipe.
Bread may be the reason you want to get an electric mixer but unless that mixer is a stand mixer, you're going to have a hard time "kneading" bread with a handheld mixer. That's why if you find that you're having a hard time kneading bread dough for any reason, you should turn to a recipe that doesn't require much kneading.
For these no-knead recipes, you're going to need a big bowl and plastic wrap. The bigger the bowl, the better since the bread dough still needs to rise and puff up. The plastic wrap is needed to wrap the bowl closed so that the bread won't have any hindrance to its rise but also won't be bothered with pests or absorb undesirable odors as it rests and rises.
Need to know what recipes you can make that don't require advanced skills in the kitchen? Read on to find a recipe that you may want to try:
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How To Make Dessert Without A Mixer
Source: Daily Buzzers PH
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